Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Vegan Sandwiches Save Memphis

As part of my Mofo sandwich theme, I've been blogging not only about sandwiches I make at home, but vegan sandwiches available in Memphis. The theme was, of course, inspired by my favorite new cookbook, Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day, which is chock full of amazing homemade sammies (more on this book Sunday night). But sometimes, a girl just ain't got time for that.

On those busy days when I'm running here and there, I rely on Memphis' many vegan-friendly restaurants to give me my sandwich fix. A couple weeks ago, I blogged about the many, many vegan sandwich options at Imagine Vegan Cafe. But there are plenty of options elsewhere as well. Tonight, I'll show you two more.

Fuel Cafe, a casual diner operated out of an old gas station, is famous for their homemade vegan burger. But after having that time and time again, I decided to branch out and try another vegan option there — the Tomato Bahn Mi:

Ha! Check out that "subtle" Cookin' Crunk plug in the background! Not on purpose. Swear.

It's a vegan spin on the traditional Vietnamese sandwich typically made with meat, cucumbers, pickled daikon, and carrots. This one had the cucumbers, daikon, and carrots, but the main filling was marinated tomatoes. On its own, it was a little bland. But I requested a bottle of sriracha halfway through the sandwich, and holy crap! The sandwich went from "meh" to "whoa." I will be ordering this again, and I will request sriracha from the start.

Cosmic Coconut is mostly known for serving fresh vegan smoothies and juices, but they've recently added a few hot food items during lunch. There's a black bean quinoa burger (had it ... delish!) and a hummus wrap. But the real star is the Vegan Grilled Cheese:

Mmmmm .... vegan grilled cheese heaven

Made with Daiya, spinach, tomatoes, and sprouted grain bread, this is one fabulous sandwich. And there's just something so satisfying about ordering a vegan grilled cheese in a restaurant. I like to follow this sandwich up with a fresh Rejuvenator juice (beets, wheatgrass, carrot, apple, ginger, kale).